Pirate Booty

The Pirate King
4/29/18
The Britannia lands on Angel at Shen's salvage yard. Junior stayed behind on Beaumonde and took some leave time. Shen is able to get then a replacement fuel tank and also some decoys to replace the ones used at Higgins' Moon. They get to work, but things take longer than expected getting the plumbing for the new tank installed and leak proof.

A few days later, Shen calls Captain Windsor to his office about a possible job. When Windsor arrives, Shen introduces him to Captain Fa Meyer and is up front that Meyer is a pirate. He knew Shen during the war and did some attacks that benefited the Independents; freighter raids and such. Meyer is very honest that he is a pirate, he admits he is a murderer and a hijacker, he's not at all apologetic. He has decided to retire, but his old crew mutinied and tried to space him. He came to Shen looking for help and Shen suggested the crew of the Britannia can do it.

Meyer explains that there is a pirate port in Red Sun on an asteroid known as Johanson's Rock. It used to have a mining complex, but when some of the big finds were made on St. Albans, the company shut it down and moved the workers there. Johanson found it, pushed it out of orbit to take it off Alliance charts and set up a base. Over the years it has grown, providing repairs and rest for pirates as well as a safe place to trade and sell spoils. Meyer has his retirement nest egg in a safety deposit box vault there. His mutinous crew stole his key card, but he can get in with his name, if the crew can provide him with someone who can break the electronic lock. He offers 2,500 credits if the crew can take him there and help with recovering his money. Windsor counters with 3,000 plus expenses and Meyer offers 3,500 total.

Windsor accepts and tells the crew to expedite repairs. Meyer asks to meet with the crew and tells them to dress up for a night of drinking in a rough part of town, but no Browncoats or Blackjacks gear. When Meyer comes aboard the ship, he has a fake transponder to give a pirate ID to the port. Windsor orders a hullplate to be installed over the Britannia's name and ID once they are offworld. The crew is introduced and he makes suggestions to each person for make their appearance more suitable for pirates: piercings, tattoos, rough beards, etc. The port allows pistols to be carried, but not rifles and suggests everyone carry a knife, since duels are common. With his twin machetes and frightening mustache, Silas is perfect as is. They make a quick hop to Beaumonde and some of the crew get temporary tattoos and jewelry, Naomi buys a chain knife. Ruan looks hopelessly young and wholesome even after his pirate makeover. Windsor receives a confidential message from Shen asking him to gather intelligence on the pirate port; ship names and types, numbers, etc.

Once they are underway, Meyer gives them the coordinates and orders a hard burn all the way there. Cid protests about the fuel use, but Meyer calculates their usage and says that's well withing the extra 500 credits for expenses, if their ship runs properly. He also points out his old crew could be headed to the port already. Along the way, the ship suffers a power failure to her maneuvering thrusters, leaving the ship sluggish, but repairs are made. The primary ignition circuit for the fusion reactor goes offline also, but no one realizes it… Captain Meyer is an entertaining ship mate with lots of funny space stories, but the crew can tell he is editing out the murders and suffering that went along with his stories. Ruan finds that like Niska, Meyer enjoys the brutality and avoids him as much as possible. Naomi occupies her time by making a robot parrot remote control flying drone. She neglects to tell anyone it has a grenade's worth of high explosive in it.

Any Port in a Storm
When they arrive, the port accepts their code and Captain Meyer's explanation that this is a new ship and crew working for him. The ship lands in a crater with three other ships and a docking tube extends to meet their airlock. They go into the tunnel and note it is poorly made and maintained with multiple patched holes and has an audible slow leak. At the elevator lobby is a security station with two armed guards and an a clerk, he requires them to put their hands on a palm scanner and state their names. Everyone is waved through with Captain Meyer and they take the elevator down to the lobby of the mining complex.

The old worker's quarters and cafeteria have been turned into a cheap hotel and restaurant, there is also a better restaurant for the ship captains, a couple of bars, a pawn shop and junk shop. The hotel has a bordello as well. Meyer leads them to a bar called "Martha's", even though Martha is long gone. Naomi heads to the bar and dodges a few gropes but not all. Ruan manages to intimidate the pirate who grabbed her and then sits with Naomi at the bar. Meyer, Windsor, Cid and Silas take a table and order drinks. Cid tries to come on to the waitress and grab her, she dodges and puts him down. When she comes back with their order she smacks Cid in the back of the head with her tray.

Meyer says they will drink and socialize tonight and hit the vault in the morning, he doesn't want to arouse suspicions by going there first thing. The crew splits up and explores the station a bit, Cid hits the pawn shop and Naomi and Ruan go across to the ship section to look at supplies. Naomi buys a pair of missiles for the shuttle craft and the two of them discuss that Ruan knew about Naomi's modifications to Shuttle 2 but didn't tell the captain.

Making a Withdrawal
In the morning, Meyer goes to the vault with Naomi and Silas, Windsor returns to preflight the ship and Cid and Ruan are back up. The attendant lets them in and Meyer shows Naomi which box is his. She pulls out the security kit that Ronnie left her and easily overrides the lock. The captain opens the box and puts a pistol in his pocket, but Silas and Naomi miss it. they do see him pull out a bunch of fake IDs and a small box. He opens the box, it contains anonymous Alliance electronic credit sticks. They can't see the denomination, but there are more than two dozen of them. He replaces the box and they leave the vaults.

On the ship, Windsor discovers the reactor won't start and runs a diagnostic. Another ship, an Osprey lands at the port while he is making repairs and he sees it is Meyer's old ship, the Blood Comet. Windsor tries to warn the crew but their comlinks don't work through the asteroid's shell. He grabs a suit and a rescue ball and heads for the elevator. Unfortunately Meyer's ex-crew arrives in the lobby while the Britannia's crew is regrouping. One spots Meyer and points him out and the battle begins.

Ruan quick draws and opens fire, wounding two pirates. Silas charges and draws his machetes and hacks another pirate. Two pirates shoot Silas then Cid, Naomi and Meyer open fire as well. In a few moments the Comet's crew are down and Silas is badly wounded.

Naomi flies her parrot drone into the elevator and sends it up to see what is happening. When the elevator opens up top, the drone flies out. Startled, one of the guards crushes it with his riot gun stock and it explodes causing seals in the docking tunnels to rupture. The elevator closes and goes into lock down, trapping Meyer and the rest in the lobby below. Windsor rushes in and helps the security team seal the air leaks so the elevator can be used.

In the lobby, the crowd is starting to question what happened. It's a pirate port, so it's not like they broke any real laws, but the port ruling council does maintain enforcers and they might have some questions that the crew doesn't want to answer. When Windsor gets the damage sealed, the elevator unlocks and the crew boards it and heads up to the surface. Realizing Meyer's old ship is here and most of the crew dead, Cid asks if they can get a bonus for capturing the ship. Meyer agrees and Windsor takes the wounded Silas bck to the Britannia while Cid, Naomi and Ruan follow Meyer to retake the Blood Comet.

Unfortunately, the three remaining crew of the Comet know something happened and they are headed to the port in full armor with rifles. The two groups spot each other in the tunnel. Since the pirates aren't wearing space suits, Naomi applies a strip of welding tape to the tunnel and pulls the igniter. the two groups open fire and Cid is hit bad and goes down. Then the welding tape ignites and ruptures the tube. The two groups split up and run away from each other. Ruan tries to drag Cid with them.

Windsor sees their dilemma and rushes to help. He grabs a suit and a rescue ball and releases the docking tube from the airlock and runs across the surface of the asteroid in low gravity leaps. When he gets there, everyone is unconscious and Cid is bleeding out as the vacuum accelerates his blood loss. He shoves Cid in the rescue ball and pressurizes it, then grabs Ruan and Naomi and heads back to the ship with one under each arm. He tosses them into the airlock and seals it. While Silas gets them inside, Windsor returns and grabs Meyer and the rescue ball with Cid and repeats his rescue performance. With everyone inside, Windsor and Silas try to revive them. Windsor awakens Ruan and points him at Cid and turns to help Meyer while Silas cares for Naomi. Ruan is still groggy from his exposure to death pressure and tries to stabilize Cid. Ruan can't stop the bleeding and Cid's heart stops. Ruan tries to resuscitate him but can't. It's just too little, too late, Cid is gone.

Guardian Angels
Windsor heads up to the bridge. The port is calling, but he ignores them and takes off. As the Britannia heads away from the asteroid, they launch a missile. Windsor goes evasive and launches a spread of decoys. The missile loses lock and Windsor hits the pulse drive and escapes. With Silas still wounded as well as Naomi, Ruan and Meyer, Windsor sets course for New Melbourne as the best place for medical assistance. He deactivates the false pirate transponder and re-engages their real one and sends Ruan outside to remove the fake pirate name. A few minutes after activating the Britannia's true transponder, Windsor is hailed by an unidentified ship, the woman's voice has a Londinium accent. She asks if they need medical assistance and orders Windsor to shut down his drives. On the sensors, a very large vessel with no transponder approaches. The woman comes on again and says a shuttle is approaching with medical assistance. An old Londinium naval shuttle docks and a group of spacers in Londinium navy uniforms with no insignia board. They treat the wounded and the doctor in charge tells Windsor that he will stay aboard to care for the injured until they reach New Melbourne. Since both of the Britannia's engineers are injured, an engineer from the boarding team will stay aboard to help out. The medical team prepares Cid's body and the crew puts him in storage for burial back home. The shuttle departs and Windsor heads for New Melbourne, but at normal speed. The ship turns away and Windsor recognizes it now as a pre-war Londinium Space Navy Triumph class battlecruiser. But all the Triumph class ships were lost in the war or scrapped afterwards. Along the way he receives a transmission from the ship, it's a gun camera view of missiles hitting the pirate port defenses and old Londinium Navy dropships delivering boarding parties.
When they arrive at New Melbourne, Meyer pays the crew and gives them an extra thousand, but tells them to give half to Cid's family. He takes his leave and heads off with his false ID to retire. The guest crew depart as well, they have contacts here, they wish the crew luck. Windsor contacts Cid's family to deliver the bad news and sends a message to Junior to meet them on Boros for the funeral.

Quotes and Smart Remarks
Discussing Lays potato chips new Gyro flavored chips.
Emily "It tastes like you ate a gyro, then vomited"
Lee "Subtle hint of gyro with a touch of bile. I have vomited after eating a gyro and I have to tell you this is a poor approximation"

Talking about Silas wanting to kill Magistrate Higgins, but can't yet because of the continuity issues
Raleigh "He's protected by plot powered armor"

Meeting pirate captain Meyer
Lee "He wants a new Dread Pirate Meyer?

Discussing Meyer's traitorous crew
Michael "They have a thief, an anti-paladin…
Lee "As long as they don't have a bard"

Disguising the ship
Lee "Strapping corpses to your ship is bad luck"
Emily "Are we doing that?"
Raleigh "Let me skip down to Corpsemart and get some from the bulk bin"

Meyer's ship is the Blood Comet
Emily "Sounds like really bad diarrhea"

Meyer wants to appraise the crew's appearance and asks them to get dressed for a night in a bad part of town
Lee "Dress like it's Tuesday"

Michael wanted a gun that shoots knives
Emily "A knun?"
Raleigh "A knifle"

Lee "Ruan dropped the P word"

Michael "Can I take Talented: Swords?"
Jim "Sure, you've lost enough fights to learn something"

Lee "Is the space bank called the spank?"

Raleigh "I'm not saying it's pirates, but… pirates…"

Discussing the layout of the pirate base
Lee "Where's the thermal exhaust port?"
Emily "Directly below the main port"

About Meyer
Emily "I don't like being around him"
Kevin "Because he's just as murdery as you?"
Lee "Burn!"

Emily is asking if there are any souvenirs
"I went to the pirate planet and all I got…"

In the pirate bar
Emily "Do they have any local specials?"
Raleigh "Rum with a roofie in it"

Talking about selling fresh produce on the pirate port
Jim "Stops space scurvy"
Lee "Spurvy"

Emily is rolling to see if Ruan notices something
Emily "Perceive hard"
She rolls poorly
Jim "Hard-ly"

Windsor gets the ship working
Kevin "You had to pull out the choke"

Naomi fires into the enemy while Silas is in melee. Raleigh rolls high and Jim forces him to re-roll with Things Don't Go Smooth. Raleigh rolls even higher
Emily "Things Go Extraordinarily Better"

Talking about Raleigh had bought off Naomi's Glory Hound complication
Raleigh "I still do crazy shit, now I don't do it just for the hell of it"
Emily "I miss that"

Kevin and Emily's kitten Stormageddon came to play
Kevin "What are you thinking about kitten?"
Lee "Murder…"

After Cid's death
Michael "I want to be buried in the ship"
Lee "Okay, we'll put you behind a wall panel"
Jim "What, cremated? We could put your urn on the shelf with all the snow globes"
Emily "We could use him to fertilize the garden"
Lee "Soylent Green is Cid!"
Michael "I'm going to come back like Groot!"
Lee "These strawberries taste like Old Spice"